February 3, 1995 –
Astronaut Eileen Collins became the first woman to pilot the Space Shuttle as mission STS-63 is launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. STS-63 was the second mission of the US/Russian Shuttle-Mir Program, which carried out the first rendezvous of the American Space Shuttle with Russia’s space station Mir.
In July 1999, Collins became the first (and currently only) female Shuttle commander with the launch of STS-93. On her last mission in 2005, she would command the historic STS-114 “Return to Flight” mission, the first after the Columbia tragedy.
The Haus of Dcaligari 